Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) versus LXP Industrial Trust (NYSE:LXP) Financial Review

LXP Industrial Trust (NYSE:LXP) and Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.5% of LXP Industrial Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.4% of Safehold shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of LXP Industrial Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of Safehold shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares LXP Industrial Trust and Safehold”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LXP Industrial Trust	$364.34 million	7.81	$44.53 million	$0.38	25.30
Safehold	$374.10 million	2.54	$105.76 million	$1.43	9.27

Safehold has higher revenue and earnings than LXP Industrial Trust. Safehold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LXP Industrial Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

LXP Industrial Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Safehold pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. LXP Industrial Trust pays out 147.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Safehold pays out 49.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. LXP Industrial Trust has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Safehold has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. LXP Industrial Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

LXP Industrial Trust has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Safehold has a beta of 1.87, meaning that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for LXP Industrial Trust and Safehold, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LXP Industrial Trust	0	2	5	0	2.71
Safehold	0	7	3	0	2.30

LXP Industrial Trust presently has a consensus price target of $54.00, indicating a potential upside of 461.62%. Safehold has a consensus price target of $19.56, indicating a potential upside of 47.53%. Given LXP Industrial Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe LXP Industrial Trust is more favorable than Safehold.

Profitability

This table compares LXP Industrial Trust and Safehold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LXP Industrial Trust	24.07%	4.34%	2.30%
Safehold	27.45%	4.70%	1.61%

Summary

LXP Industrial Trust beats Safehold on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LXP Industrial Trust

LXP Industrial Trust (NYSE: LXP) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on single-tenant industrial real estate investments across the United States. LXP seeks to expand its industrial portfolio through acquisitions, build-to-suit transactions, sale-leaseback transactions, development projects and other transactions.

About Safehold

Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) is revolutionizing real estate ownership by providing a new and better way for owners to unlock the value of the land beneath their buildings. Having created the modern ground lease industry in 2017, Safehold continues to help owners of high quality multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality, student housing, life science and mixed-use properties generate higher returns with less risk. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT), seeks to deliver safe, growing income and long-term capital appreciation to its shareholders.